Male Wool-carder Bee

While Pete and Chris spent over eight hours driving to and from West Sussex to survey a couple of fields on sandy soil, I spent the day at home preparing for a small exhibition and workshop that I'll be presenting on Saturday. I printed out a range of photographs that had been taken as part of my Artist-in-Residence post, and made some of them into cards for sale.

I had a few wanders round the garden, photographing insects visiting flowers. After an apparent absence last year, the Wool-carder Bees are back in force, with Marsh Woundwort being their favoured nectar source. Unusually among British bees, the male is considerably larger than the female. He is fiercely territorial, defending his territory vigorously against intruding rival males and other insects and will fly directly and rapidly at invaders (including photographers) to move them on. The male backs up his aggression with threat as the tip of his abdomen is armed with a series of stout spines.